US actress Peri Gilpin, who appeared alongside him throughout Fasier’s 263 episodes, tweeted a picture of Mahoney singing at her wedding, adding: “Watch Moonstruck, Say Anything and/or Frasier or anything you can with him in it and raise a glass to John. Remember him well.”

Born in Blackpool in 1940 to a family evacuated from wartime Manchester, Mahoney later emigrated to the US where he was granted citizenship after service in the military, according to a biography on online entertainment database IMDb.

A latecomer to acting, he began learning his craft on stage aged 40 and won a Tony award for best featured actor in a play in 1986.